Investigations

COMMONWEALTH BANCSHARES (CWBS)

Zamansky LLC announces that it is investigating potential securities fraud claims for investors in Commonwealth Bankshares Inc. (CWBS) against its former officers. CWBS was the public parent corporation of Bank of Commonwealth which failed in September 2011, and was liquidated by the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation. CWBS also filed for bankruptcy.

On January 10, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil complaint against the Bank’s former CEO Edward J. Woodard Jr., CFO Cynthia A. Sabol and VP Stephen G. Fields, who also face criminal charges. The SEC charged these bank officers with knowingly making false and misleading statements about the health of the Bank’s deteriorating mortgage loan portfolio. The Bank eventually wrote off $150 million in losses from its loan portfolio.

CWBS’s stock price fell from over $21 per share to $0. Investors who held CWBS stock while it collapsed likely did so based on false and misleading statements made by the Bank’s officers. If you were an investor in CWBS who suffered a loss, please contact our securities fraud law firm for an evaluation of your rights. You can contact investment fraud lawyer Jake Zamansky by telephone at (212) 742-1414 or by email at jake@zamansky.com.